SOURCE: Costlow, Jane T. “‘Oh-là-là’ and ‘No-no-no’: Odintsova as Woman Alone in Fathers and Children.” In A Plot of Her Own: The Female Protagonist in Russian Literature, edited by Sona Stephan Hoisington, pp. 21-32. Evanston, Ill: Northwestern University Press, 1995.

In the following essay, Costlow discusses Turgenev's treatment of female characters, particularly Odintsova, in his most famous novel.

Turgenev Women discuss events, know about actors, look for oil, talk about medicine, perform on the stage … Turgenev Women in the morning mist, Turgenev Women right beside you …(1)

“Turgenev Women,” the contemporary song suggests, look for oil and go to sea, descend into subways and peel potatoes—asking us to believe that the superachieving, inexhaustible (and exhausted) women of late- and post-Soviet Russia are the spiritual and literal daughters of Ivan Turgenev's heroines. Can there truly be a connection? Surely ironic, rather than direct, to imagine Natalya, Liza, and Elena...